Patricia Sims has been president of Drake State Community and Technical College for more than four years.

A veteran of the Huntsville City School system and a former dean of the college of education at Athens State University, she is leading the effort to help the historic Black community college keep up with Huntsville’s record growth and help the college meet the area’s workforce training demands.

She has held positions on all three levels of education, starting as a science teacher at Stone Middle School – now Campus 805 – and moving up through the ranks into administration with Huntsville City Schools before moving on to the community college and university levels.

Can you talk about your role as Drake State president?

It’s the best time to be a president with so much happening in the city. The city is growing so much and there’s so much opportunity. My goal really is to try to position the college a to be larger part of the workforce solution for this area as our city grows.